BOSTON -- It isn’t the most conventional thing for a lineup to have two left-handed hitters at the top -- particularly against lefty starting pitchers.

But Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke sounds like he is leaning that way for the start of the season.

Expect left fielder Andrew Benintendi to bat first and slugging third baseman Rafael Devers to slot behind in the No. 2 hole.

The Red Sox will get to see how that combo plays against a lefty right out of the gate, as the Orioles are starting John Means on Friday night at Fenway Park.

“Right off the bat, I may go with the two left-handers and give those guys a chance to do it,” said Roenicke. “And I know we talked about the short season and how we need to get off to a good start. But I still know if those two guys are hitting well -- Andrew and Devers -- like we’ve seen so far, they’re hitting left-handers and right-handers right now, so I feel pretty comfortable with both of them.”

Benintendi has a tall order to fill replacing Mookie Betts in the leadoff spot. Though Benintendi struggled in that spot last season, he thrived in 2018 when Betts was hurt for a bit.

Coincidentally or not, Devers developed into a stud last season right around the time former manager Alex Cora turned him into a No. 2 hitter. From the second spot in 2019, Devers slashed .334/.379/.653 with 19 homers and 63 RBIs in 335 plate appearances.

If Roenicke decides to split up the two lefties against a lefty pitcher, Benintendi is probably the one who will go to a different spot in the order. Who else might lead off against a lefty?

“Well, I know [Kevin] Pillar can do it,” said Roenicke. “I feel good with him up there against the left-handers. And then we’ll just kind of see. We’ll see how [José] Peraza hits, he’s a possibility. He’s a guy that I’m familiar with that used to be a good baserunner, a good basestealer. So if he gets it back, he can do it. So I think we have some options.”

Pérez: ‘It’s time to compete’
Red Sox lefty Martín Pérez finished Summer Camp just as he wanted -- with a fine performance.

Pérez, who will enter the season as Boston’s No. 2 starter, fired six shutout innings, allowing three hits and no walks while striking out six. He threw 80 pitches, 52 of them for strikes.

On Saturday, Pérez will face the Orioles at Fenway in his debut for the Red Sox.

“I felt good,” Pérez said. “I found the rhythm on all my pitches and my delivery, too. So I enjoyed the six innings that I threw and I think it’s time to compete.”

In this three intrasquad outings, Pérez got progressively better each time out.

“Before I was having some problems with my cutter and then I think I found it, and that’s important for me,” Pérez said. “I feel really good. I feel 100 percent and I believe my stuff again. I’m healthy, that’s important, too.”

Two or three catchers?
With rosters at 30 for the first two weeks of the season, it seemed like the Red Sox would carry three catchers. That would give Roenicke a couple of extra weeks to figure out if Kevin Plawecki or non-roster invite Jonathan Lucroy should be Christian Vazquez’s main backup.

But Roenicke didn’t sound locked in to carrying three catchers when asked about it on Monday.

“I don’t know if it’s likely [to carry three catchers], but it’s definitely been discussed,” Roenicke said. “It was discussed yesterday and the day before. It’s kind of ongoing. It’s where those pieces fit the best and if it’s three catchers, we’re not obviously thinking about just catching ballgames but about some hitters, too -- as we did last year, when Vazqy was really hot.

“He became a really good pinch-hitter for us on the days he wasn’t catching, so that has a lot to do with it. Lucroy, if he can get his offensive form back, he showed it in the first Spring Training and he showed it early in this camp, you’ve got two good pinch-hitters if Plawecki is catching. So I think that’s what we’re looking at, how those pieces fit the best. Not that we need three catchers in a 60-game season.”

Opener usage
This -- and only this -- is clear regarding the starting rotation to open the season. Nathan Eovaldi, Martín Pérez and Ryan Weber will start the first three games.

What happens after that?

Roenicke and his staff are still mulling it over. An opener is sure to be used, but it could be in the fourth spot of the rotation rather than the fifth spot.

Lefty Brian Johnson is a candidate to be a starting pitcher while Eduardo Rodriguez gets back up to speed in his recovery from COVID-19. Righty Zack Godley is another starting option.

“The fourth and fifth spot are what we’ve discussed. And it’s only because we’re trying to figure out which one is better to maybe have an opener and which one is better to have a starter in,” Roenicke said. “So it could be four or five -- we’re not sure exactly yet. We’ve talked about a bunch of names, and it really depends on the matchups and who we’re playing and what we’ll do that day.

“So there’s nobody I can tell you that’s going to be that starter for the fifth or the fourth. And we’ve discussed obviously a lot of names. We’ll figure that out, we’ll probably have a pretty good idea by the time we get to Opening Day. We’ll know which one we want to go an opener with and which one we want to go a traditional starter.”

Up next
At last, the Red Sox will face an opponent, starting on Tuesday, when the Blue Jays come to town for two exhibition games.

Weber will get the start on Tuesday in his final tuneup before facing the Orioles on Sunday at Fenway.

Roenicke will also make sure to get his regulars as many at-bats as they need.

With the Red Sox having a day off on Thursday leading into Opening Day, Roenicke expects several members of his starting lineup to play all nine innings on Wednesday.